Jousting draws knights in shining armor

Hayne Palmour IV

Knights Marcus Hamel, left, from Canada, and Jan Gradon, from Poland, shake hands after competing against each other in jousting during the Tournament of the Phoenix at the Poway Rodeo Grounds in Poway on Saturday.

Knights Marcus Hamel, left, from Canada, and Jan Gradon, from Poland, shake hands after competing against each other in jousting during the Tournament of the Phoenix at the Poway Rodeo Grounds in Poway on Saturday. (Hayne Palmour IV)

The first time Jeffrey Hedgecock saw a suit of armor as a child, he didn’t think of the man inside, but saw only the sculpted shell of a human body.

“I’m fascinated by the image of the human form encased in steel,” the Ramona resident said.

Decades later, Hedgecock, 51, would find himself inside the suit as an international jouster, professional armourer and founder of the Tournament of the Phoenix, a competition that’s helping resurrect the medieval sport.

Tournament of the Phoenix 2013

The tournament is marking its seventh year at the rodeo grounds of the Poway Valley Riders Association this weekend. There, competitors from the U.S., Poland, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand tested their battle prowess with lances, clubs and axes.

The appeal of jousting is partly about “the shot of adrenaline,” said competitor Jan Gradon, 33, of Poland. “But it’s mostly riding horses in a different way.”

During a Saturday joust, riders raced toward each other along a course, aiming to break their lances on each other’s shields. Splinters exploded as competitors struck each other with the weapons.

A lance hit to the torso scores one point, a broken lance tip earns two and a break on the opponent’s shield scores three, Hedgecock said. A rider can win an extra point for breaking more of the lance, and a total of 10 points for unhorsing an opponent. But that’s a rare occurrence, he said.

“It’s very difficult to unhorse somebody,” he said. “We invite the best riders, and we stay on.”

The heat proved a formidable opponent, as well. Clad in 60 pounds of armor on an 82-degree day, some competitors struggled to stay cool.

Hand-forged and polished to a chrome-like finish, Hedgecock’s armor sells for $25,000 to $50,000 per suit, he said, “about as much as a nice car.”

He crafts two to three per year, mostly for other professional jousters, using techniques he learned through trial and error.

After studying art at UC San Diego, he said, he became involved in historical re-enactments and began crafting armor. His friends asked for pieces, and within a year he made it his full-time profession, he said. Crafting the pieces required an understanding of anatomy and engineering, as well as metallurgy.

“You have to understand the body mechanics, too, because the body needs to move within that shell,” he said. “It’s not a tin can. It should be a second skin.”

He was introduced to jousting during a trip to Europe in 2003 and started competing in international tournaments.

“I was stepping into the deep end of the pool completely,” he said. “I learned by observing and doing.”

In 2007, he founded the Tournament of the Phoenix to bring jousting to the United States. The first tournament was scheduled for the weekend after the Witch Creek fire blazed through San Diego County, and took place under smoke-darkened skies. Organizers christened the event the Tournament of the Phoenix after launching it amid the ashes of the wildfire.

Erik Hietala, 15, visiting the event with fellow students from Ramona High School’s Navy Junior ROTC, said the events were entertaining, but he wasn’t sure if they applied to military service today.

“It looks interesting,” he said. “I don’t think I want to do it because I’m slightly accident prone. It definitely shows why people advance in technology. Because running around with a stick doesn’t seem to be very high-tech.”

But participants said the medieval code of chivalry — broadly defined as the ethics, sportsmanship and courtesy that defined courtly life and combat in the Middle Ages — still has value in the modern world.

The organization Chivalry Today, an exhibitor at the tournament, provides living history lessons at schools and said the Renaissance period applies to modern ideals.

“I think it’s appealing because everyone wants to see themselves as a knight in shining armor,” said program director Scott Farrell.

For Hedgecock, jousting is a lesson in humility and persistence.

“One of the key aspects of chivalry is knightly combat,” he said. “It’s about learning your limits, but pushing yourself.”